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Uni Watch, obsessing lately over football footwear, is struck by the following thought: If 1970s punt- returning star Billy "White Shoes" Johnson were playing today, he'd need a new nickname, because virtually all NFL teams now wear white shoes.

Black spikes were the norm for decades, primarily because it was the only color most manufacturers offered. The first prominent white-shod player, interestingly enough, was not Johnson but Joe Namath, who favored white Ponys. But Broadway Joe was noted more for his arm than for his feet, so it was the fleet-footed Johnson who became the white-shoe standard-bearer.

By the late '70s, other players were experimenting with nonblack spikes, including Joe Greene and L.C. Greenwood of the Steelers, who wore gold. With shoe colors proliferating, the NFL brought footwear under the league's uniform guidelines in the early '80s, decreeing that each team choose either white or black (with exceptions made for kickers and punters, who often opt for black soccer cleats, regardless of what their teammates wear). NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy says the tide turned heavily from black to white around 1984, when teams realized that white shoes could be accented with team colors, which McCarthy says "is fine by us as long as the predominant color is still white."

These days, the lone black-shod holdouts are the Buccaneers, who switched from white to black when their unis were redesigned in 1997. "We think it gives us a tougher, more menacing look," says team spokesman Reggie Roberts. So if black is tough and menacing, then all those teams wearing white are . . . ? "We're not interested in what other teams wear," says Roberts, refusing to take the bait. "We just think black is a good look for us."

McCarthy, the NFL rep, notes that whichever color a team chooses, players must wear shoes manufactured by Adidas, Nike, or Reebok, which have official licensing deals with the league. Those who insist on wearing other brands have to tape over their shoes' logos, so as not to jeopardize the NFL's sponsorship arrangements. All of which tells Uni Watch that the only color that really matters here is green.

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I like black (or just dark) shoes more than white (or light colored shoes). Here's why...

White (or any light color, grey, yellow, etc) is slimming. It makes your legs look longer and therefore slimmer. So, when players where white shoes, they look like they have skinny, chicken legs (especially the Oakland A's and rappers who wear baggy ass jeans and white sneakers). When teams wear black shoes, however, with their shortening and non-slimming effect, they look more like athletic guy legs.

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I can just about guarantee that the Browns will wear them next year (Are we ever going to get a look at the "new" Browns uni's for next year??? We all know they are going to a full-time retro look. When are they going to bust out the darker brown jerseys with the grey facemasked helmet?).

I have a feeling that on Thursday, you will see another team "going back" to black.

Arizona is a possibility. San Diego could be another (for some reason, Madden had them wearing them last year). Buffalo wears them with their throwbacks.

Who knows, by the start of the 2006 season, half the teams in the NFL could be sporting black kicks. In 1997, it was just the Colts and Bucs (If Wanny was still with the Bears, they weren't back then).

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Black is the way to go. I think the Packers need to finally switch back, since as a "traditional" team they would be the only team in the NFC North still wearing ugly white shoes which look worse when all muddied up.

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TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) -- Edgerrin James had a friendly warning for Kurt Warner when the Arizona Cardinals teammates walked off the practice field Monday.

"Just listen to the beat," James said. "It's the beat, not the lyrics."

James, the Cardinals' new running back, was referring to the rap music blaring from speakers in his locker. He didn't want his straight-laced quarterback, whose charitable foundation promotes Christian values, to be shocked by what he was about to hear.

"You've got to respect Kurt," James told reporters. "He's an elder, so we've got to make sure that he's cool with everything. I don't want to step on toes too early."

When the Cardinals lured James away from the Indianapolis Colts with a four-year, $30 million contract in March, their main goal was to fortify their running attack with a four-time Pro Bowl running back. But more than four months before the 2006 opener, James is making his presence felt off the field.

The first change could be heard Monday, with James' rap music pulsating through the locker room after a voluntary workout for veterans. James also has persuaded coach Dennis Green to switch uniform shoes from white to black -- an NFL fashion statement -- and lobbied owner Bill Bidwill to install wireless Internet in the locker room.

Next thing you know, James will have the Cardinals believing they're a playoff contender.